Making your own black powder

G

GolfGuy

New member
This is beyond my knowledge right now but it might be something that I would like to try in the future. I was just wondering if anyone has tried to make your own powder or knows if this is safe or insanely dangerous, not just the act of making the powder but actually firing it a gun.

I'm sure it's difficult to know the quality and 'potency' of your homemade product.

I found this site while surfing for black powder accessories. This site tells you how to make it and they sell all the ingredients and the 'ball mill' to grind the ingredients together.

http://www.unitednuclear.com/bp.htm

I'm sure this topic has been discussed before but I thought this was interesting.
 
When I was a young brash teenager some friends and myself concocted up batches of homemade Black Powder. We would burn wood to obtain the charcoal, purchased some saltpeter and sulfur and experimented with the parts of each to get the perfect solution. Luckily for us we never tried it in a firearm nor in enclosed container to make an explosive. The hardest part for us was to get the right amount of sulfur and saltpeter to the charcoal. These made the difference between a long slow burn and a batch that went poof in one burst. Also we obtained a homemade mortar and pestle (wood) to grind down the big chunks to coarse or fine powder. We had a coffee can full of powder to one side one day when we put out a small amount for testing. needless to say a spark jumped into the coffee can. We were impressed enough to cease our experiments.

Alas, those were the care free days long before 9/11. If we were to have done this today we would probably have the Feds visiting our homes.
 
GG,

Not difficult at all to test "potency". If it burns at 14 CCS, cubic centimeters per second, you have made good powder. If it is slower, it is not good powder, faster, you MIGHT get a visit from ATFBE.

It will most likely be fluffier. You won't be able to cake it right, under high pressure, then dry and corn.

It will probably shoot, after a fashion, kinda like APP, but smell like BP. That's a plus.

Cheers,

George
 
I do remember reading that in the earliest days of firearms, gunpowder was a simple mechanical mixture of sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter-- each in its own individual flakes.

The problem with this is that the flakes of different materials tended to settle to different levels in the container. So that while being transported or just sitting around, the power of the gunpowder was always changing. Also it wasn't the same in different levels of the keg.

To get around this (based on ancient memory, so don't stake your life on it) you had to somehow make a wet cake of the stuff, let it dry, and grind it. That way it was one homogeneous substance, and wouldn't settle out any more. But you're GRINDING A BRICK OF SOLID GUNPOWDER. There are lots and lots of things that can happen while you're doing this, and all of them meet the operational definition of Bad.

There's a reason powder mills used a special form of construction-- a very heavy timber frame, with all the siding boards held on only by one nail at each end. :D Look, I don't want to be a party pooper, but I advise really, REALLY strongly against trying to do this.
 
Oh don't worry you're not pooping on my party, I just have an intellectual curiosity about most things (especially things that are way over my head) and found that site interesting. I'm not planning on trying to make my own, but remained open to the possiblity down the road if it was safe.

So I'll put a check mark in the 'Not a good idea column'! :D

But I think you are pretty close in your recolection, that site did mention adding water to make a cake. it also mentioned early in the process that just combining the ingredients and stiring didn't mean you would end up with a usable powder, the ingredients have to be ground into each ohter and then something happens at the molecular level (a certain ingredient combines with another and gives off excess carbon dioxide and retains a higher level of oxygen and thats why the stuff goes poof when you put a match to it, something like that) and you use a ball drum to do that. Put the initial mixture in the this tumble drum with a bunch of lead balls (because they are non-sparking) and let this thing grind for a few hours.

Then take it out and add water to make the cake, then do something else, yada yada something like that I don't remember exactly just thought it was interesting.

If you see a mushroom cloud over Texas that either means terrorists got us or I went ahead and tried to make some powder! :D
 
Yes you can make your own BP; are web sites that will walk you through the steps (or there were...nver know what the Gov. has been busy shutting down when you ain't looking).

No, it isn't a very good idea for seveal reaons. Working "wet" the chance of having an accidental "boom...OH MY GOD WHERE IS MY HAND!" is slim (but still a possibility). Doubt you'll go for the "priest urine" historic formula. Every gov. agency takes a dim view of the process; I myself would be upset in my urban area if my next door neighbor blew his house all over mine.
 
making powder

long, long ago, in a galaxy far,far away, myself and some friends ejoyed the benefits of high school chemistry, including understanding how to make several different interesting compounds. One of these was gunpowder. Homemade, in a basement, classic formula (7:7:1), and was used for filling cartridge cases, then rolling the ends shut. A firecracker fuse in the flash hole, sealed with a drop of epoxy. An old pipe at an angle and we had a "mortar). Boy, were STUPID!:eek: and Lucky!

The powder was just ground and mixed, and was yellowish in color (sulphur). The "black" of black powder is a graphite coating of the kernals, to reduce water absorbtion. We never got that far. "Wet" power is frequently inert. That's why they always said "keep your powder dry"!

Be Aware, blackpowder (gunpowder) can be set off by a spark, a flame, static electricity, and even impact (under certain conditions). Sometimes the damn stuff just goes off for no reason you can figure. Oh, and while small quantities will burn, LARGE quantities can DETONATE! The only thing I can think of to make at home is Nitro glycerin, chemical poisons, and nerve gas:D Seriously, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.

If you have a death wish, are stupid, or just plain crazy, you might try it someplace else (far away from family and loved ones, pets, etc.) But leave a note somewhere, so your next of kin will know where you went, ioncase you don't come back in one piece.:eek:
 
44 Amp said:
Be Aware, blackpowder (gunpowder) can be set off by a spark, a flame, static electricity, and even impact (under certain conditions). Sometimes the damn stuff just goes off for no reason you can figure.
Click to expand...

Horse puckey. While a spark or flame can ignite black powder, static electricity cannot. And it never just "goes off for no reason." There is ALWAYS an ignition source.
 
Oh, come on! It ain't that bad. How many confirmed stories has anyone here heard about some boob blowing himself up while making gunpowder in the kitchen? Sure, there's a risk. You all wanna die from cancer instead? Man's gotta have a decent way to go. Sheesh!

Check this out: http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/history.html

This guy's got a handle on the safety part. And he shows how to make it semi-smokeless -- safely. Personally, when the do-good nannies in charge of us all take the ammo off the market, here's a way to keep plinkin'.

He even shows the right way to make charcoal.
 
blackpowder= sulfur charcoal and salt peter(potassium nitrate)and a ball mill actually pretty safe and easy to make.Made it a few times.
 
Yeah, it is real safe. That is why, when the DuPont powder mill blew up in 1975, they rebuilt it with the intent of filling their last government contract and then shutting down. Gearhart and Owens bought it so as to keep their jobs and have managed to keep their occasional fires and explosions minor enough to not put them out of business.
 
Powder factories blow up. Kitchens tables don't. Oil refineries blow up. Local gas stations seldom do. Matter of scale. Don't make gunpowder in batches larger than a few ounces, follow directions, don't be careless. Reloading ammunition is risky. Ocean sailing is risky. Driving is risky. Unsafe sex is risky. Go ahead, avoid the risk. That's a lotta fun.
 
Yeah, well, there's risk and then there's risk that's not worth it.

Grinding a brick of powder by hand strikes me as being about like scouring the sink with the additional charm that you might blow your hands off. It might be good to know how, just in case, but given the calculation of little fun, no profit, and significant risk, I think I'll just buy my boom fuel at the store.
 
You didn't study the link in my first post, did you? Here, try again:

http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/history.html

I agree, grinding a big dry brick of blackpowder over a filter in your kitchen is probably terminally stupid, but that isn't how corning is described in that link. If grinding significant quantities (half a pound or more) of dry powder is the only way you can figure out how to do it, I'd definitely recommend not trying it. Better safe than sorry.

Of course, making blackpowder is like skiing or surfing, not a necessity of life, but, I'd bet, a lot safer. Whether it's fun or not is a personal call.

==========================================================

On second thought, forget the whole idea. I guess some things just aren't for mainstream folks. :D
 
Father forgive me

But I think you misunderstood. Static electricity CAN cause a spark. I don't mean to imply it is a reliable method of ignition, just that it can, (and has) happened. Homemade gunpowder can be rather unstable stuff. If you have a good formula, and follow directions, you can create a decent product. If you are a bunch of high school kids just screwing around, the stuff you make up can have a wide range of properties.

Yes, there is ALWAYS an ignition source, just sometimes you can't figure out exactly what it was. Compared to homemade Nitro, black powder is pretty stable forgiving stuff.

After blowing up a bunch of stuff, with a bunch of chemical compounds, I decided that further expirimentation was not efficient, until such time as I could no longer legally purchase powder.
 
"But I think you misunderstood. Static electricity CAN cause a spark. "

I understood. And I don't disagree. Having worked for 40+ years with static sensitive equipment, I understand its effects. And, blackpowder is touchy. So is natural gas. So is my wife if I forget a birthday or an anniversary. I'm still married. As you point out, understanding is crucial.

Regarding the effect of an electrical discharge on blackpowder, this may be edifying:

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/mlexperiments/sparks/sparks.html

Critical issue here is: quantity. This guy didn't direct the arc into a pound of powder. If the discharge set off that little mound of powder, no big deal. That's the issue. That and due care.
 
I'm sure that all of us that are old enough to have had one of the "good" chemistry sets in our youth, (The ones that you could make neat smells with:D ) have made an attempt to make black powder. Actually it wasn't black powder as such but a flour like compound called "serpentine". (Sulpher, saltpetre and charcoal). As said, it is just a mechanical mixture. The finer ground the components, the better it worked. (Grind before combining ) But, as also said, subject to "settling" and other bad things that made it very unpredictable. Some times it would go "pfft", other times "kaboom". I read some where that the term "gunner" was derived from "gonner" and described the dangers of being an earlier cannoneer.:D
To control this "unpredictabily" Black Powder was developed. This was done by a process called "corning" where the serpentine was wetted down and made into cakes. This process "locked" the components into place. There also may have been some "binding" component added. (Up to this point, making it isn't too unsafe) Then the cakes are dried and ground. (explosive + friction = heat = boom. It just got dangerous) After grinding, the resulting grains are screened to the different sizes, (F, FF, FFF,etc), coated in graphite to keep the grains from resticking to each other, packaged and are ready to go.

Not something I would want to try at home.

Dean
 
The way it is done now is with a ball mill. The time spent in the mill determines the grain size. This is much safer than the wet and grind method. You can just dump in your componets and let er spin.

SW
 
"Then the cakes are dried and ground. (explosive + friction = heat = boom. It just got dangerous) "

Why is everybody so hung up on drying the cake? In small quantities it doesn't need to be dried. Twice before in this thread I posted a link to a site where this trick is described. I'll post it again for those who can't find it:


Read through the section in "Homemade Black Powder" where it describes the corning process. This guy does it while still wet. Wet powder is hard to set afire. Like cigarette butts in a urinal.

Hope third time's the charm.
 
I'd stick to buying GOEX for $10/lb versus risking my life/family/home over trying to make the stuff.............sometimes you can sneeze and that stuff will explode..........leave the manufacturing to the experts!
 
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